This looks like you haven't set your hostname, if I am interpreting it correctly. That should be in the Gentoo handbook.

Code:

"/etc/make.conf", line 2: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/usr/portage/local/layman/make.conf'

Have you properly installed and configured Layman? At this point, you should probably not even have Layman, and just stick to the basics. I don't understand why you're using Layman. Is some package that you want only in an overlay? You can install KDE or XFCE without an overlay, I think. In any case, if you do want an overlay right now for some reason, you probably just need to configure it properly per the Gentoo overlay guide at http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Layman.

You need Xorg for all of the GUIs you have tried to use, so lets fix that first.

Your hostname needs to be set and networking needs to work too. Xorg is a network transparent application, in that it is deigned to work over a network. This means that when its all installed in the same system, it still communicates with itself over the network.

Code:

/root/.serverauth.2390 does not exist

You are trying to run Xorg as root. It should work but its a very bad thing. Please run startx as your normal user.

Tell us how you configured and made your kernel

Code:

_XSERVTransSocketUNIXCreateListener: ...SocketCreateListener() failed

can indicate that some networking support options are missing from your kernel._________________Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

This looks like you haven't set your hostname, if I am interpreting it correctly. That should be in the Gentoo handbook.

Code:

"/etc/make.conf", line 2: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/usr/portage/local/layman/make.conf'

Have you properly installed and configured Layman? At this point, you should probably not even have Layman, and just stick to the basics. I don't understand why you're using Layman. Is some package that you want only in an overlay? You can install KDE or XFCE without an overlay, I think. In any case, if you do want an overlay right now for some reason, you probably just need to configure it properly per the Gentoo overlay guide at http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Layman.

Setting the hostname was in the handbook and I did so. Here are the contents of my /etc/conf.d/hostname file:

Code:

# Set to the hostname of this machine
#hostname="localhost"
hostname="SamsungGentoo"

I was using Layman because the KDE install guide instructed to do so. How can I install KDE without it? How can I verify the integrity of my Layman install?

You need Xorg for all of the GUIs you have tried to use, so lets fix that first.

Your hostname needs to be set and networking needs to work too. Xorg is a network transparent application, in that it is deigned to work over a network. This means that when its all installed in the same system, it still communicates with itself over the network.

Code:

/root/.serverauth.2390 does not exist

You are trying to run Xorg as root. It should work but its a very bad thing. Please run startx as your normal user.

Tell us how you configured and made your kernel

Code:

_XSERVTransSocketUNIXCreateListener: ...SocketCreateListener() failed

can indicate that some networking support options are missing from your kernel.

Ok, you are following the wrong guide. That one is for the testing version of KDE which will be very unreliable. You probably want this one: http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/KDE
I think you will agree its much easier to install.

EDIT: since I posted here I may as well ask: what does X -retro do as a normal user?_________________First things first, but not necessarily in that order.

Ok, you are following the wrong guide. That one is for the testing version of KDE which will be very unreliable. You probably want this one: http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/KDE
I think you will agree its much easier to install.

EDIT: since I posted here I may as well ask: what does X -retro do as a normal user?

the Doctor to the rescue again. Thanks so much. As you know I have been struggling with my install for sometime now but won't give up. Learning lots, and in between headaches, enjoying playing with Gentoo.

The KDE Guide you reference is much easier! I will definitely use it but I have to sort my X problem out first if I understand correctly?

To be honest, I think NeddySeagoon has a better idea of what is going then I do, although I doubt he will be able to respond for a while due to his location.

Yes, first you need to get X working, which is rather unusual since you did use genkernel.

Well, I find it very odd that X can't find X -retro I suppose you did spell it correctly? Did you install x11-base/xorg-server or xorg-x11?_________________First things first, but not necessarily in that order.

EDIT: you may as well post your Xorg log. To do that, first you should emerge wgetpaste if you have not already and then run cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | wgetpaste and post the URL that is returned._________________First things first, but not necessarily in that order.

genkernel cannot do everything. The problem is that it doesn't know the video driver you want to use in Xorg and some kernel settings to support different video drivers are mutually exclusive.
As a result, genkernel leaves the options unset.
If you want to use the intel, radeon or nouveau drivers you will need to set a few kernel options by hand.

genkernel will have made your kernel properly so you should not get socket errors unless you are running a hardened kernel.
However, your /etc/hosts could be incorrect._________________Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

<rant-on/>I know that the learning curve is suppose to be steep with Gentoo, and although not familiar with this distro, I am not exactly technically inept but this is just ridiculous. It has been a couple of months and I still can't get a working Gentoo up and running. </rant-off>

Anyway this forum has been great and an invaluable resource. Hope I can get over this next hump.

The fglrx wiki page you cite, is for the binary blob drivers, not the Radeon open source driver.

Your Xorg.conf log says

Code:

[ 257.240] (EE) this is a Muxless PX A+I platform, we doesn't supported it
[ 257.240] (EE) No devices detected.

This tells you have a laptop with two graphics chips. One is a low power chip for maximum battery life, the other offers better graphics performance but needs more power.

We need to sort out which two chips you have, please post your lspci output.

The Muxless part is a bit scary. It may mean that meanwhile, you can only use the low power chip. The problem is that both graphics chips can draw into the pixel buffer but only one can read the pixel buffer to the screen to generate the image. Work is in hand to make this work but its not complete. Xorg cannot stet up your system in this split manner. When you use the low power graphics, it will work, when you use the high power grahics you will get a black screen. This isn't a Gentoo thing, its the state of software development in GNU/Linux.

The fglrx wiki page you cite, is for the binary blob drivers, not the Radeon open source driver.

Your Xorg.conf log says

Code:

[ 257.240] (EE) this is a Muxless PX A+I platform, we doesn't supported it
[ 257.240] (EE) No devices detected.

This tells you have a laptop with two graphics chips. One is a low power chip for maximum battery life, the other offers better graphics performance but needs more power.

We need to sort out which two chips you have, please post your lspci output.

The Muxless part is a bit scary. It may mean that meanwhile, you can only use the low power chip. The problem is that both graphics chips can draw into the pixel buffer but only one can read the pixel buffer to the screen to generate the image. Work is in hand to make this work but its not complete. Xorg cannot stet up your system in this split manner. When you use the low power graphics, it will work, when you use the high power grahics you will get a black screen. This isn't a Gentoo thing, its the state of software development in GNU/Linux.

I used the fglx page because I saw a note on the wiki indicating that if the video card was DirectX 10 or later that was the appropriate driver. If pre-Direct X 10 then use the Radeon open source driver. But I can't find where I saw that and may have mis-read it.

I also missed that there was an Intel chip as well and thus was trying to sort out the ATI. It specifically referenced "Radeon" so mistakenly thought I was on the right track.

Anyway, I took your advice and followed the instructions at this page . I recompiled the kernel as instructed etc but unfortunately x still won't start. Here is the log...http://bpaste.net/show/73872/.

I noticed two things when trying to

Code:

startx

. The first is that it always times out when trying to connect to the .xauth* files. The second is that in the log it seems that it is still trying to use fglx but I am not sure why. Am I misreading the log. What would you suggest I try next?

I was also curious. When I was selecting the kernel options for Intel I noticed there were also options for ATI. Should I use them as well?

The terms in question are PRIME, pixmap sharing and dri2 offload - at least regarding the commits.

I couldn't find much about the quality of the support.
xf86-video-ati since 7.0.0 is KMS-only, so you'll need the relevant bits in the kernel too.
The variable for mesa that controls the switch is DRI_PRIME.

As for the 73872 log, you need to remove the xorg conf snippet, that sets the driver to fglrx.

PS.: as for that FAQ, is a bit out of date and doesn't exactly cover laptop case.

I wasn't sure if it was safe to edit the xorg.conf file by just deleting the ati snippets so I backed it up and replaced it with the pre-fgxl file. X will now lauch when using startx and bring me into a limited/ugly gui that only has terminal windows.

My concern is that when I check xorg.conf there is nothing populating the file. http://bpaste.net/show/73951/ All of the wiki's I have read so far indicate that xorg handles the file automatically and manual edits are not advised unless absolutely necessary. This is the file that I replaced. [url] http://bpaste.net/show/73952/[/url]

Hard to answer your questions, without seeing the log from that livecd, though unless I'm missing something ATM we're talking just about the xserver.
LiveCD most likely had a full desktop environment installed, you probably don't have that yet.
Also, as I mentioned in the previous post, kernel upgrade might be recommended.

As for that old xorg.conf, there was nothing of use in it once you decided to drop the driver - the dummy file wasn't necessary, just deleting it would have been OK in this case.

The fglrx wiki page you cite, is for the binary blob drivers, not the Radeon open source driver.

Your Xorg.conf log says

Code:

[ 257.240] (EE) this is a Muxless PX A+I platform, we doesn't supported it
[ 257.240] (EE) No devices detected.

This tells you have a laptop with two graphics chips. One is a low power chip for maximum battery life, the other offers better graphics performance but needs more power.

We need to sort out which two chips you have, please post your lspci output.

The Muxless part is a bit scary. It may mean that meanwhile, you can only use the low power chip. The problem is that both graphics chips can draw into the pixel buffer but only one can read the pixel buffer to the screen to generate the image. Work is in hand to make this work but its not complete. Xorg cannot stet up your system in this split manner. When you use the low power graphics, it will work, when you use the high power grahics you will get a black screen. This isn't a Gentoo thing, its the state of software development in GNU/Linux.

I wasn't sure if you wanted me to deal with the ATI stuff after I had a basic Xorg working so I left it alone for the moment.

I emerged xfce and configured as instructed in the wiki referenced by the amd64 manual but still no success. The machine will now boot, prompt me for the password for my Luks encrypted volume, continue to boot, bring me to a gui login screen (slim) and then once I log in, bump me bag to the cli interface. Here is my most recent log. http://bpaste.net/show/74086/ I am reading these before posting and trying to decipher them but am a bit lost. Sorry.

what I wrote will disable your intel igp and use your ati discrete card_________________Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former - Albert Einstein
ProjectFootball

Its a muxless system. The ATI graphics chip can draw into the pixel buffer but not read it out. Only the Intel chip can do that.
As far as I know, Xorg does not yet support a split setup like this, so only the Intel chip can work as it can both draw in the pixel buffer and read the pixels out again to generated the video signal for the display.

Attempting to use the ATI chip will result in a blank screen as Xorg will set it up to generate the video signal - but it can't._________________Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.